Romney and the blame-stream media

9/16/12 6:28 PM EDT

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the Republican playbook: In times of political crisis, blame the liberal mainstream media.

Whether justified or not — and it varies — attacks against the press have served as a conservative defense mechanism for decades: from George H.W. Bush’s “Annoy the media!” bumper sticker in 1992 to Sarah Palin’s criticisms of the “liberal lamestream media” in 2008 to the billboards and advertisements around the country this year that read, “Don’t believe the liberal media!”

But in an election season in which leading conservative voices have often led the charge in faulting their candidate, Republican Mitt Romney, over his campaign strategy, his penchant for secrecy and the vagueness of his policy platforms, “blame the liberal media” has become a problematic rallying cry. Traditionally, conservatives have locked arms and defended the standard-bearer when he’s on his heels — but since Romney emerged as the presumptive nominee, there has been a pervasive feeling among establishmentarians and right-wing pundits alike that Romney is not their man.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board slammed Romney for being too vague on his health care policy proposals. The Weekly Standards’ Bill Kristol knocked the candidate for running a “pre-Ryan sort of campaign” comparable to that of Michael Dukakis in 1988. Radio show host Laura Ingraham chastised Republicans for losing what should be a “gimme” election and said the party should be “shut down” if Romney doesn’t beat President Barack Obama. Rush Limbaugh suggested that the party was insufficiently conservative. And this was just the latest round in the ongoing criticism Romney has had to face from his own side over the last year.

In that context, it is difficult to see how this past week’s rallying cry against the “liberal mainstream media” — over the media’s coverage of Romney’s criticism of the president’s foreign policy and of Obama himself — lasts beyond the current news cycle. The ambition of such attacks has always been to deflect criticism against the right and demonize a coalition of opposition on the left. But even leading conservative voices who leveled criticisms against the political press this week caution against relying on a Palin-style anti-media effort.